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‘You took considerable efforts to ensure what you were doing was covered up, by paperwork that you were responsible for.

‘As a result the companies and the club have lost over half a million pounds. The effect is obvious.

‘At a time when the medical charities need all the money they can get, they have been put to very considerable loss.

Costly compulsion: Joyce bought family cars and collectable vehicles like this vintage Morris Minor, hiding them in 80 garages around Bristol which cost £4,200 a month to rent

‘The damage to their reputation has to be acknowledged.’

Joyce worked as an accountant for
Above and Beyond, a charity raising money for the nine central Bristol
hospitals, for 17 years.

Bosses at the charity began examining finances after sacking Joyce for forging their fire alarm certificates.

Investigations
revealed that Joyce had paid himself £562,029.51 from funds relating to
two companies and a charity swimming club.

The
companies were Education Centre Management Ltd, which facilitates
management services to University Hospitals Bristol NHS Trust Education
Centre and Pentamed Ltd, which provides training in the use of
anaesthetics.

Online shopping: Joyce would buy the cars online on eBay, including this Triumph Stag

Forged signature: Joyce forged the signature on 676 cheques made payable to himself to buy the cars, many of which were of 'relatively low value', prosecutor James Bennett said

Dolphin Swimming Club, based at Bristol Royal Infirmary, was also targeted by Joyce.

Prosecutor James Bennett told the
court: ‘In essence, the defendant stole money from two of these
companies and the charity by drawing 676 company cheques made payable to
himself or made payable to cash.

‘This
involved him forging a signature on each cheque. First, he created
fraudulent invoices for work that was not carried out to justify the
drawing of the cheques.

‘Second,
he moved money away from the two companies into the bank account of the
charity to balance the charity's end of year accounts.’

Joyce
was arrested at his home on July 21 last year after Above and Beyond
finance director found discrepancies in his accounting.

Defending: 'He was addicted to buying them, he would bid on eBay and this went on and on,' the defendant's lawyer Tabitha Macfarlane said

He told police officers he could no longer afford to pay rent on garages where he kept his cars and matters were ‘down to me alone and no one else was involved’.

Mr Bennett said Joyce admitted having a ‘collecting compulsion’ and his ability to exploit his position fuelled his condition.

When the defendant's home address was searched there was evidence of hoarding. His home was cluttered from floor to ceiling with boxes of items and papers.

Mr Bennett said: ‘The police made inquiries about the defendant's comment about collecting cars. 105 vehicles were traced, including two caravans and a low level trailer.

‘The majority are of relatively low value but others are of some value including Triumph Stags, Jaguar XJs, two funeral limousines and two vintage Morris Minors.’

No large amounts of money were discovered in Joyce's bank account, although he does own his home as well as a property in Brislington, Bristol and a 0.25 acre plot of land behind it.

Defending Joyce, Tabitha Macfarlane said the father-of-two was subject of a divorce and his father had died of Parkinson's Disease in 2005, which he had struggled with.

She added: ‘He bought motor vehicles. Was there an air conditioned hanger to house them? Were there Porsches and Ferraris?

‘There could be nothing further from the truth. Only one or two were of some worth.

‘He was addicted to buying them, he would bid on eBay and this went on and on. There are 80-plus garages and the cars are of little value to anybody.’

Detective Constable Tim Shortman, whose work on the case alongside Mr Bennett was praised by the Judge, said: ‘Mr Joyce is an eccentric, but clever and very creative.

‘The people he worked with have been devastated by what's been uncovered.’

In a statement Above and Beyond said: ‘We are deeply shocked and saddened to find ourselves a victim of this situation.